You'd think it's just about knitting and travel, but it's really about life, love, faith...and food

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Little Cotton Rabbit from Willow Hill Yarn Company — Day 1

The looming danger of non-cutenes...

I find it daunting to knit a stuffed animal.

Those of you who remember the legendary “Sheepmantis" know I haven't had the best luck with such projects.

I believe it’s because while you can follow directions perfectly and produce the exact casing required, stuffing it wrong can still land you with lumpy and disfigured results. Let’s face it: nobody wants to hug a lumpy sheep. Or teddy bear. Or, in this case, Little Cotton Rabbit.

The looming danger of non-cuteness starts you second-guessing your work, knowing your competency can fall flat at the hands of a handful of plush filling. It’s not like I can take my bunny to Build a Bear and have them bail me out.

I decided, therefore, to start with a piece of this project that most closely resembles regular knitting. In this case, it’s the dress the bunny would wear. I was also traveling at the time, and as such couldn’t really pack stuffing, nor would I be in many situations where I could pay the close attention that the bunny’s individual body pieces would require.

This turned out to be an excellent strategy. I got a nice surge of accomplishment at creating a cute little polkadot bunny dress. This gave me confidence to start next on the piece requiring the most art talent in my opinion, that being the head.

We’ll see if my choice was a good one. A cute dress won't do much for a homely bunny.